Schaumburg's plan for a bee yard doesn't fly with neighbors

The beekeeping movement has a new suburban ally, but some neighbors in Schaumburg think a community bee yard is not so sweet.

This week, the Schaumburg Village Board approved the new public beehive haven — a 1,600-square-foot, fenced-in area at the edge of a 16-acre lot where residents can apply to keep up to three honeybee hives.

Hours after the approval, Schaumburg received its first application, said Martha Dooley, village landscape and sustainability planner.

Among the requirements: $1 million in liability insurance, an acknowledgment of the risk of injury, registration with the Illinois Department of Agriculture and compliance with the Illinois Bees and Apiaries Act.

Archana Patel lives just across Plum Grove Road from the bee farm site.

"My kids and a lot of our neighborhood kids (won't be able to) play in the backyard," Patel said. "It's not the right place to put it. It's a good cause, but it's not a good place."

Other residents shared Patel's sentiment that the bees don't belong across the street from a neighborhood with many young children. Some opponents believe the insects could also become agitated when fireworks are launched from the same lot during local festivities, though the Illinois State Beekeepers Association determined that fireworks would not affect the bees, according to village documents.

The yard will be 800 feet away, and not easily visible, from Plum Grove Road, Dooley said.

Beekeeping has always been allowed in Schaumburg, but the owner of an average-size residential property would have to apply for a special-use permit— a process that costs $603 — to keep bees.

No one had ever applied to keep bees in Schaumburg, according to village officials, so its new bee yard, which will be free to qualified residents, is an attempt to support the hobby proactively. Beekeepers will be given a key to enter the fenced area to tend to their hives.

"I think when you can support a project that supports your residents, that's an important thing," Dooley said. "And bees are so important to the ecology of the world that it merits looking at it."

Schaumburg started looking into a public space for beekeeping last year at the suggestion of Trustee Mark Madej, who was inspired by Hanover Park's Community Apiary. It was created in spring 2011 and has 10 hives with no reported incidents of injury or vandalism, said Howard Killian, Hanover Park's public works director.

Schaumburg will spend about $4,500 on one-time costs on the new community bee yard. It is expected to open in April.